Cuba hopes EU talks will lead to US gesture

Cuba hopes the opening of negotiations on a new political agreement with the European Union could lead to similar talks with the United States, a visiting EU commissioner said Cuba's foreign minister told her on Thursday.

EU Education Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said she, too, hoped the launching of an EU-Cuba dialogue would lead to better relations between Cuba and the United States, which severed diplomatic ties with the communist island in 1961 and imposed an economic embargo a year later. (Reuters)